Meta ‘automatically’ blocks govt.-flagged content in India 

on local law requirements 

 India is now among a set of “limited countries” where Facebook and Instagram “automatically restrict content, at scale and based on local law requirements,” 

censorship orders by gov   

Meta, the parent firm of both social media platforms, has complied with censorship orders on a large scale in recent weeks, 

as the firm has been hit with  takedown notices from 

• State police authorities
• Union government.

 Precise numbers of local law-related takedowns on the platforms will only be published by the firm in the second half of 2026. 

The Sahyog portal

which provides a web link for authorised police officials around the country to send takedown notices to social media platforms, 

operates under Section 79(3)(b) of the Information Technology Act, under which social media platforms could 

• lose “safe harbour” for content posted by users, 
• 
  
• and end up defending themselves in court alongside the people whose content has been targeted by authorities.

non-binding takedown notices 

Meta did not provide written responses to questions from The Hindu. The firm’s receptivity to non-binding takedown notices appears to have increased since the IT Ministry in February reduced timelines from 36 hours to a maximum of three hours.

Non-compliance within this timeline would lead to a loss of safe harbour. Meta did not respond to a question on whether it conducts human rights evaluations on such takedowns. The help documentation on its site says it does such evaluations.

Twitter, has challenged the Sahyog portal

in the Karnataka High Court, and does not comply with police takedown notices when it believes the content they target is lawful.

‘Lasting censorship’

giving police authorities wide powers

Meta’s response, however, is to instantaneously restrict access in response to content that has been sent through this mechanism, giving police authorities wide powers of immediate and lasting / continue censorship that they can exercise by merely filling out an online form.

“Various apparatuses of the government have been issuing notices (not orders) providing 

‘actual knowledge’ of violations of Indian law to platforms under Section 79(3)(b), 

most of which, when scrutinised, do not actually disclose any violation of any Indian law by the users,” Pranesh Prakash, co-founder of the Centre for Internet and Society, who is now a tech law and policy consultant, 

Mr. Prakash said that users are seldom acted against personally in court, with the matter ending in the content takedown, which “show[s] … that the platforms would not be held liable either.”

“Yet, instead of fighting for their users, Meta is unthinkingly removing content it is legally not even required to remove 

Source the hindu